Review of O.J.: Made in America

I have been very impressed with the scope and quality of this much anticipated documentary. While I enjoyed the inaugural season of American Crime Story with O.J. Simpson as its subject, it was a) a dramatization, and b) solely focused on the infamous murder case. This documentary, on the other hand takes us back to OJ's junior college days and examines, as its title suggests, what made O.J. Simpson the man he became. Seeing the rise of Simpson's football stardom put in context of the turbulent times during his days at USC was eye- opening. Using a bounty of old footage and interviews, we are shown the single-mindedness and sense of purpose that drove O.J. from the earliest days of his career and his complete disconnect from the racial tensions and the equal rights movement going on around him - perhaps, tellingly so. The filmmakers also do an amazing job of examining the people, the events and circumstances in the Los Angeles community which led an atmosphere in the city that undeniably had an impact on the investigation, the trial and the verdict in what has rightly been called the trial of the century.